Slashdot Mirror
Nursing Homes Go High-Tech
mattlary writes "Here's an interesting article about a tracking system being installed in a retirement community. The system can track where residents are anywhere in the campus, and also uses cameras to keep an eye on residents. The community also contains numerous sensors so staff can track residents' activity."
big brother is watching grand uncle.
Hit me in the head and send me to the nursing home with the cute nurses...
- Your stupidity got you into this mess, why can't it get you out? -Will Rogers
So... how long until a government starts using this technology in a large-scale implementation?
"Sensors on refrigerator doors that automatically notify staff when residents are up and active each day, replacing older methods such as "check-in" buttons or paper cards on doorknobs."
I hope when I'm that old I'll still keep bizarre hours. It'll keep the staff on their toes.
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/07/08/156224.shtml ?tid=100&tid=137&tid=215
I wanna be the first boy on the block to have an RFID tagged granny!
Just gives more reasons for our grandparents to fight against being shoved into nursing homes.
Yay we can go outside again! Hmm, I don't like the look of those teenagers! *goes back inside* But on a serious note.. isn't this just a bit derogatory towards older people, it's treating them like animals. Has there been an outbreak of lost elderly people recently?
..that the nursing home never gets any retired slashdotters there. I'm sure the tin foil would be missing from the tops of the dinner trays and quickly turned into hats...
-Gamma
Kidney stones aren't useful. Why would something that could help the minders pass?
In my day, we didn't have young whippersnappers such as yourselves tracking us with your whositz and your whatnots. We tied onions to our belts, each person a different colored onion. Yessir, that's how they tracked us. Onions. Now, back then you couldn't just get onions anywhere. Nosir. You had to hop the So'easter heading to Fayettesvile. That's where the onion factories were.... First you had to get past the guards ndnmsa,sdnfffsf snorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre.
is whether it can trigger an alarm if a patient wonders offsite. It's a bigger problem than most people realize -- an Alzheimer's patient wonders off, gets lost, sometimes for days on end wondering the streets. IMHO the most valuable part of a system like this would be the ability to trigger an alarm if patients cross a pre-defined boundary.
It did, however, mention that it records the exact time employees enter and leave the facility, so that they only get paid for the time they actually work. The infrastructure and underlying components seem to be there, but it seems to me like they are more interested in protecting their money than their residents.
bash: rtfm: command not found
The alert system also sounds very cool. Especially its ability to work in the forested area. Not a bad facility.
Glad to see they have creative people working there, that understand human behavior. They must be very well-versed in user interfaces.
All they need now is a moderation system so that they get modded -1 any time they mention their colonoscopy they had a week ago.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
"Thank you for calling Friendly Senior Services. Your call is important to us. All attendants are currently busy helping other callers. Please stay on the line, and an attendant will be with you shortly. If this is an emergency, hang up and dial 911".
Seriously, am I the only one thinking of that Futurama episode?
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it! --Longbottle
These are older people with health problems.
:)
Having this kind of a system allows the staff to keep tabs on the residents, thereby (theoretically)
giving them the ability to quickly respond in case of problems.
Think about your grandmother or other old person you know- if/when they go in, you want them to be monitored- its not that far off from a hosipital, after all.
my 2 decicreds here...
/b
|f(x)dx = F(b) - F(a)
(With apologies to the German rock band Sodom...)
As the baby boomers age, yes, there is going to be a surplus of elderly people, especially those who partied too hard when they were younger and thus have alzheimers, parkinson's, etc.
Droolers.
"The Personal Emergency Response System that will locate residents throughout the 41-acre complex, including the indoor pool, on a trail through six acres of forest and in 64 duplex and free-standing homes."
Until the power goes out, and the on hand staff must search the entire complex for all the seniors because they haven't prepared for the possibility. The system is great, however the staff needs to be trained to handle a power less situation and to locate the residents quickly.
One of the disadvantages with using a new system like the one described is becoming dependent on it.
In nature, there are neither rewards or punishments, there are only consequences.
They do already. The genes that they've inserted into soy, corn, canola and cotton 20 years ago produce carbon-nano-RFID tags ;)
Am I the only one who read the headline and thought: "I am the pusher robot... I push grandma down the stairs"? link
I guess they figured that people weren't buying the old excuses about only using stuff like this to track sex offenders/pedophiles so now they're trying to protect old people. Im just waiting for the day when they hand everyone fluffy white wool jackets to wear.
One thing about nurses is that they often keep detailed record of things. For example all nursing notes tend to keep a recorded of how many times a persons bowels have opened during the nurse's shift. eg.
BNO = bowels not opened
BO x 2 = bowels opened twice
As these places become more high tech and have nursing notes placed in databases amazing facts of information about people will be able to be gleamed.
For example, you could find out that Mr X had 480 peices of toast in the last twelve months, and that he opened his bowels 250 times... and that he tended to open his bowel in morning after having 2 peices of toast for breakfast, not his normal one.
I'm sure the department of homeland security could make brilliant use of such information!!!
"Nurse Jones, the computer is telling me Old Mavis is constipated again."
Paul Beardsell
I remember maybe 10 years ago a bed manufacturer who used a grid of pressure sensors, and a neural network to sense people presence, position and activity.
The idea was simple and seemed good, but I've never see-it in the real world.
Anyway, technological aids are only that, aids, never a people replacement.
What's in a sig?
I'm just curious if they're using GPS, RFID or Loran type stuff, another interesting thing might be to put an altimeter in each of the little push buttons so they can find out if the person has fallen, and is unconcious, or something. I'm not sure though that this technology is really required though, it seems like the majority of people entering this home are those who are fully functional and can do things like cross country ski, I could be wrong but do they really need all this information/tracking information about them?
"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction here and merely hoped.
Now the participants I deal with are all cognitively aware for the most part, but even the sharp ones will get lost walking up and down a short corridor. Over the age of 80 there is a steep decline, though you'd be amazed at how active people are late into their 70s!
Only a few of the men I've talked to would take up something like this device willingly, but most if not all would love their spouses to have it. And I'm sure the wives feel similarly (I only get to see the men).
Would I want such a device? Probably not, but then again I am intimately familiar with what a hip fracture does to someone, and how scary even mild dementia can be.
-Ian
if they install this in a bad old home, i bet they could catch alot of bad stuff happening, like staff beating up old people, old people beating up old people, and everything else that happens.
Another use would be to keep track of the staff. There are frequent news stories about how the staff is either abusing or neglecting the patients they are entrusted to care for. While working at these places seems like it can suck at times you are still expected to provide the patients with proper care -- not rough them up, ignore them, or rob them.
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
However, something that is orwelian used in one way, can have the opposite effect used another way.
My Dad is in a fairly advanced stage of dementia. He hardly talks, and no longer recognizes family. He is currently in long term care in a locked ward to keep him from wandering off. It would be a great danger to him if he was allowed to go where he wants. Currently, he can only leave if a family member comes and takes him for a walk. I did this today actually.
Something like this would give him greater freedom, and would improve his quality of life. I would love it if my dad could roam freely. If his whereabouts could be monitored, he could gain at least a shred of freedom.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The story is a dupe, the topic is boring, the facts weren't checked. WE GET IT!!
Don't know what I'm talking about?
Check this:
The Domestic End Game
March 4, 2002
I can recall very clearly one morning many years ago while commuting to work in the North suburbs of Chicago hearing the announcement that the government was removing home prices from the CPI. That was 1981, if I am not mistaken. At that time, the CPI was running at about an 8% annual rate of increase, largely because of soaring home prices.
The rise in home prices created a new trend. After 14 years of stagnating stock prices some homeowners would keep their old homes when they moved and rent them in the expectation that the price of the home would keep rising. Thus, the rents were typically set at the homeowners old mortgage rate plus the real estate taxes. I was renting just such a home at the time, and the rent was a mere 3% of the market value of the house. The cash outlay, even net of taxes, was far less than a mortgage on the full market value of the home.
In the place of housing prices the government substituted precisely this type of rent, available on a mere 2% of the total housing stock, and called it "imputed rent." Thus, it was the rental rate charged by the 2% of homeowners who were the most optimistic about price appreciation, so that they could hold on to their first homes and sell them later. All they needed to cover was their cash outlay for mortgage and taxes, and they had to offer a rental bargain to lure away tenants from the siren song of appreciation and tax deductions that they might otherwise have if they purchased a house instead of renting a house.
Of course this imputed rental vastly understated the actual cash outlay for housing by about 55% of the American public which owned homes, but that was precisely the point. In response to the inflation of the 1970's Congress indexed both Social Security had Federal income tax marginal rates to the CPI, which was then based upon a fixed basket of goods. Thus, inflation hurt our imperial government by raising its costs (Social Security) and lowering its revenues (indexed marginal tax rates). This CPI adjustment had the effect of repealing the politically popular protections enacted by Congress to shield the public from the effects of inflation (raising their taxes and lowering their retirement incomes).
And since shelter costs represented 40% of the CPI, I knew that the CPI would chronically understate inflation from that point onward. Instead of a fixed basket of goods, it had become a political fiction, created by un-elected inner-party bureaucrats to preserve the power of the imperial government they so thoroughly idolized.
Some twenty years later I read a news article which states that the average Social Security Benefit has just been increased to reflect this year's CPI and is now $872 per month.
Tilt!!!
An efficiency apartment in what our imperial elites effectionately refer to as the "fly-over" areas of the country costs $550 per month.
So how on earth can anybody actually live on Social Security?
Folks, social security has already been repealed.
Game over!!!
Twenty years of inner party monkeying with the CPI has produced a pot of water with a gradually rising temperature which has finally cooked the frog.
As the infirmities of old age set in, most of the elderly end up in retirement homes.
A decent retirement home costs about $20,000 per year. What kind of care can a Soci
Seastead this.
Some people must choose between a nursing home or a live-in nurse, and this could help mitigate the costs. Maybe even more privacy, nobody will need to physically go in and bother them to see if they're ok, all vitals are constantly monitored.(I don't know if they can monitor vitals like that yet, but they will)
So it isn't Big Brother that's watching us any more, it's Young Whipper Snapper? They keep making things so difficult to follow.
I am really looking forward to getting stuck in a
home. 3 squares a day. 24 hour security. cameras or RFID tags to follow me. No worries or
responsibilities. Wait...sounds like prison.....!
Never mind
"Key chain fobs for residents that will wirelessly unlock doors to the complex and link to their accounts for purchases in the gift shop and in-house bar."
At least a few of those old people are going to relate this to the beast, though it's difficult to liken a fob to a mark on the right hand or forehead.
I recently had to deal with a legal case of an elderly gentleman. I can't give any details but it was basically Mr. American Dream: young man immigrates, starts company, finds a niche, works hard and eventually becomes wealthy.
Due to a heart condition, and I suspect old age in general, he required constant supervision. Since his kids just couldn't handle it any more (I realize this is harsh but taking care of someone 24/7 isn't exactly easy) they moved him into an assisted living community.
Now, this man was wealthy and, generally doing fine when he moved in. Almost two years and more than $9000 a month later, he was broke and doing not so well (emphasis is on not).
I got to see the place and on the outside everything was alright. Modern facilities, friendly staff, a pool, competent medical personell and a state of the art security system. That's right. Camera surveillance that would make the British government pale in envy. Even in some of the rooms. Motion detectors. Wireless heart monitors. Kinda spooky in an Orwellian way.
Of course, this was all not used for surveillance purposes - they installed all this for safety and/or medical reasons. And, of course, the patients signed off on it and were(mostly) aware that they're being monitored.
The problem is, the constant lack of human interaction (the most you could hope for is somebody coming by once a day to see if you were indeed still alive) is hard on those old people and it does seem to have a really negative effect on their health. Of course, I can't prove a direct correlation but it was pretty obvious that his man's deteriorating health at least had to do with him feeling that there was nothing left to look forward to.
I think this is one of those instances were technology is not helping but rather hurting us.
No, it wouldn't have.
everything in moderation
My mother-in-law is living in a retirement home. She's not very mobile, and needs people to help with a few things, and living in her apartment got too hard and too dangerous, because the "I've fallen and I can't get up" problem is really serious if you can't get up (she can't), plus it's hard to find cooks who'll stay around for more than a few months (that seems to be a very temporary job for most people who do it.) And she doesn't want to move up to the frozen north to live with us.
The last place she lived had an Alzheimers wing. We didn't see those people very often, but they do wander off and get lost, and some are in worse shape than others. My grandfather spent about four years seriously senile in a nursing home, and needed a lot of reminding and help to do things; my grandmother was in the same room, clearheaded to the end but in bad physical shape. They didn't really like the place, but that had a lot to do with institutional cooking and inattentive nursing staff, and the other place they'd tried wasn't much better.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Where's my tin-foil colostomy bag?
Not only do you have all the pleasures of old age, and your rapidly approaching death to look forward to - you have to consider who will help you when you can't help yourself.
Now maybe you'll get lucky. Maybe your children, if you have them, will take care of your, for years maybe. However, with the selfish imperative so much to the fore in today's society, do you really think they are going to drop their lives to look after the end of yours?
So we come to nursing homes. Well, the numbers just don't add up. The cost of that people based care is crippling - savings that you might still have are eaten up and no state wants to pay the money needed to meet even the worst care around.
Technologies like these mentioned help to reduce the number of people needed to look after old people, making the budgets make a bit more sense. However trading what it means to be human for a few more years of life is not a trade that most people want to make.
So, you technocrats out there. While you still have your health and your marbles, consider creating some technology that will support you even when you don't know what day it is. The right type of technology that will maintain your humanity - before you have to use it yourself.
The main point for me is never forget that 'the elderly' are not 'them' but 'us'.
What's in a sig?
...or the Soylent Green will have crunchy bits..
AT&ROFLMAO
And of course there is the always present thought that each morning you could be one of the ones who doesn't wake up at all. Remember retirement homes are places you check into. Kinda like a life sentence in prison with no chance of parol.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The idea that you are being tracked is only relevant from a privacy perspective if they know who you are. The most frightening aspect of government "intervention" is the assumption that they know something about you. I think what the Orwellians missed is the idea of customization or personalization. How can we ensure that what is collected is only related to security/safety/convenience aspects? This is likely down the road after we figure out how to use the information. It's like the Gmail scare... "they're watching ME!" Actually nobody cares about "you." Maybe this is what weblogs are good for--to show you how irrelevant you and your opinion actually are. OK, well at least mine. It's so sad!
A personal Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle--they can know either who you are or where you are but never both.
Of course if people didn't elect their leaders based on whom promises to give the biggest tax cut we could simply have nurses and similar staff take care of them. No danger in people running into the street if there is a proper congierge at the gate. But sadly people vote for the guy that gives them 300bucks (and takes a 1000) so we are reduced to this.
At least I hope this is only used for the elderly with mental problems. Using this on the mentally capable is I think way way way beyond privacy invasion.
Then again I once SAW (not heard about) a old woman who was tied to her chair to prevent her walking off. Staff just didn't have time to keep checking up on her. Ah well, as long as CDA (the bush party of holland) keeps promising tax cuts this kinda stuff will keep happening.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It's a Retirement Community
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
Nurse: Computer, where is Captain Kirk?
Majel Roddenberry's voice, extra-nasal: Captain Kirk is not in the nursing home.
Nurse: Can you locate him?
Computer: Processing
(pause)
Computer: Captain Kirk has been located by the Personal Emergency Response System of the Hilton corporation. He is in a corridor with a camera crew from Priceline. He is approaching Captain Spock's room.
"It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too." --Eugene Wigner
The Register was reporting yesterday that Japan was planning to RFID school kids so that they could be monitored on their way to school: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/09/japanese_t ag_schoolkids/
There is possibly no way to show more clearly that you want to deprieve elderly people of their human rights, to show that they are second class at best.
Somebody else here wrote that old people themselves like to have some support in living once it gets tough. Those that I know judge their ability to handle daily live as being wastly better than their relatives. But their are definitely some of those self-reflecting types.
So suppose you want to have help coping with your every day life. That means you want people to help you and you want them to do the hard part. Those things you tell them you do not feel capable of. And maybe someone who takes care of your partner who picked up the habit of wandering away at night. But this involves real people too. Not a camera and some remote operator. You definitely do not want to loose your privacy.
So basically you have the problem: Old people need a lot of help and care. Things that are expensive in terms of human resources by definition. Because you consciouly or not do not consider them worth the effort you try to find some cheap fake-solutions. In this case by reducing the help-and-care-problem to the fact of people tending to get lost and defining that the problem is them getting lost. Not them being disoriented or maybe basically being just lonesome or depressive.
I could rant on and on about how short-sighted, inhuman and plainly disgusting materialistic this is.
So long and thanks for all the fish
Clap-On! Clap-Off!
:p
Surely those have been in retirement homes for years - not high-tech?
John Kerry is a Joke!
Ah, but do they have fog machines and control over the passage of time?
Anyway, getting back to the beacon, it was a very simple radio transmitter, a button to turn it on, and a simple accelerometer similar to those used in car alarms, to detect falls. A tilt switch would trigger when the person wearing the beacon leaned over. OK, admittedly the accelerometer detected the bounce rather than the fall. The whole thing was about 3"x1"x1.5", and the antenna was built into the lanyard you wore it on. He had plans for integrating a heart monitor to it, too.
Then mental institutions, hospitals, prisons, halfway houses, orphanages, schools, work, your ass.
isn't this just a bit derogatory towards older people, it's treating them like animals
not in the least... i used to sell home security systems, and most of the over-60 crowd was *way* into the pendant approach to safety/security
this is a *major* selling point for the facility in the article... my own grandmother (living 20 miles from nowhere on a peat bog in rural vermont, thanks to my reclusive grandad who i take after) once fell and broke a hip walking their german shepherd... well, now that she's making her own decisions, she's looked *exclusively* at high-maitnance assisted living places...
for most folks in their 70s and +, the cost is no issues, and being tracked is not only okay, its a value-added bonus... you have to realize that when you are at the age that colds can be fatal and a minor slip is terrifying, the idea of having a computer able to pinpoit your location can help you sleep at night
My father is in the first stages of
alzeimers.
So far, he can still remember where he
is and how to get back home. He goes
about his daily walks with no problem.
However, I can see the day when his alzeimers
advances to the point where he may not be
able to find his way back home.
Would it be nice to have some sort of tracking
on him so that mom (who is caring for him) can
find him, or better yet, a device that is plugged
into his ear that tell him how to get back home
based on gps and street map information; like;
'Walk left at the next intersection'; and
so forth.
We as a family will be needing something like
this.
Cleara
> I'm sure the department of homeland security could
> make brilliant use of such information!!!
For instance they could be alerted whenever someone on an airplane just opened his bowel at an unscheduled time. Fear does that to a man...
It's not just slightly higher.. it's way, way higher. If Grandma falls down on the kitchen floor because she slipped on a grape, she can do serious damage to herself. A fall that would leave you or I with just a bruise can easily leave Grandma with a dislocated hip or broken arm. Also, at her age, Grandma doesn't heal as fast form an injury, so an injury has more serious side effects. Throw in complications from other problems that happpen in old age, failing sight, hearing, strength, and even critical thinking, and you can see that it's much more risky.
When you move into a nursing home, it's ideally because you NEED that care.. you do not have the capability to live by yourself anymore. You can be injured easily doing daily household chores... you do not have the endurance or strength to do what is needed.
who is watching the rest home staff???
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This is MY galaxy...go find your OWN!
when you first read the article, that you thought they had come up with some new way to abuse old people? sadly, this can help the elderly who wander off, of course this could be prevented if the people who work at these places did their damn jobs right in the first place. This is another example of why I will never place my mother in a home, because I dont want her to spend the rest of her days being tagged like an animal in the wild and not given privacy, because the elderly are people too, just because their minds are going doesnt mean they arent people, I can see the advantages of this because people do get lost, but honestly, I dont think it'll help because if a staff member is gonna lose track of someone, I'm pretty sure they're gonna lose track of the screen that reports where these people are currently, and what happens if they wander off the grounds? will they just be ignored? or will someone else, in turn watch them? Would this also be a way for retirement homes to enforce prisoner-like contracts that dont allow people who live at these homes to even visit off campus, or even leave certain areas, like if they're in a yard and walk to a "no no place" in the yard, will they be reprimanded and restricted even more to how much space they can walk in? or will they be charged for how much they "roam" ?
these are all problems that can arise, especially with retirement homes, which are known to rip off the families of the elderly, or mistreat them. honestly I think this will onlycause for more abuse, but not just to the elderly, but to their families as well.
Sen Corruptus:"It's good for old people right?" ... I guess so...."
Educated Individual:"Ummm yeah
Sen Corruptus:"You wouldn't like them to get lost would you?"
EI:"No,no... but..."
Sen Corruptus:"And what about your kids? Don't you care about them?"
EI:"Of course I do! It's just..."
Sen Corruptus:"So we'll tag them too. In case of pedophiles. Your not a pedophile are you?"
EI:"What?! No I just don't like..."
Sen Corruptus:"We'll tag everyone so no one gets lost or tries to be a pedophile."
EI:"That's wrong. You can't...."
Sen Corruptus:"PEDOPHILE!!! TERRORIST SYMPATHISER!!! COMMUNIST!!! OFFICER TAKE HIM AWAY!!!!"
EI:"Wait I......"
Sen Corruptus:"Anyone else care to disagree? Good."
May the Maths Be with you!
Homer: "If you don't start more making sense, we're gonna have to put you in a home. "
Grandpa: "You already put me in a home!"
Homer: "Then we'll put you in the crooked home we saw on 60 Minutes."
Grandpa: "I'll be good."
If only this technology were available two years ago, Elvis wouldn't have had to go through all that trouble.
not just put them on ice until there is a cure?
I know you are psychotic, but please make an effort.
This is not a new idea. I work at a nursing home in West Virginia (of all states) and we have been using a similar system (secureCare) for several years now. Generally, you attach an RFID to each confused resident and put these sensors on the doors. If the resident tries to push the door open, an alarm goes off in the nursing station. Everyone in managment is immediately paged with an alphanumeric message telling the resident name and the Exit taken. (this method is much cheaper than the aforementioned tracking system)
Another new technology that is also being implimented are resident databases with touchpads that help nursing aids take care of residents. It lets nurses use their time more efficiently. (quite cool, they installed windows XP embedded LCD's every 5 yds in the halls)[Each resident has a mag card that the nurses aid takes and swipes to access the residents records]
The nursing home also implimented a biometric ID system that allows employees to clock in and out.
I really like working there and being around the neat technology.
HOPE 5 r0x0rs
My grandfather on my mother's side used to live in a nursing home, and reading this story really makes me wish they had tried it out sooner, in all honesty. He had a very limited short and long term memory, and the doctors had no explanation for it other than "he's just getting old." A few years ago the nurse left the main door open and he walked out. We tried hiring a private investigator to find him, but nothing came up. So now, my only grandfather, is, to the government, missing and presumed dead. As big brotherish as this idea may sound, maybe if the consent of both the resident and his family is given, this could stop something like this from happening again...
And where is the sensor to track STAFF activities?
When you're away for a month, without a care, get Granny's summer temperature on your WAP device.
Should prevent a couple thousand funerals.
And the next step will be a perimeter security field where if a resident tries to go outside it a sub skin syringe will activate and put them to sleep.
Spooky.
People are human
I contest! If they were human, they wouldn't be in a "nursing home." In a "nursing home," you are a patient before you are a human or one of the people.
My Dad is in a fairly advanced stage of dementia. He hardly talks, and no longer recognizes family. He is currently in long term care in a locked ward to keep him from wandering off.
So, you admit that your "Dad" doesn't know what he's doing. But tell me, hypocritical "libertarian", is your "Dad" aware of it? Facts speak for themselves, young whipper-snapper!
It would be a great danger to him if he was allowed to go where he wants.
Ah-Ha! You confess your "Dad" is competent to go where he wants! He doesn't have Dimentia, after all!
Currently, he can only leave if a family member comes and takes him for a walk. I did this today actually.
Ah-Ha! Your "Dad" is competent and knows where he wants to travel! Evil: you are monitoring him that he doesn't go to the bank to get those Nigerian billions that he wouldn't will to you! You disrespectful child! I dis-own you! I shall not recognize you ever again! I shall not acknowledge your presence in this verry slashdot forum! And if I ever anticipate you to think thoughts about me or lock me up in a ward then I'll start wetting and shitting my pants every day, wander away as soon as you least expect, eat my food through my ears, and speak incomprehensibly about japanese snow monkies and water warts!
PS: I feel your pain, this post was meant to be funny. I have friends and family that have worse scenarios...I mean the full plate of disorders that make Dimentia look like just another algebraic variable (if it ever was).
that story seemed reasonable, until i looked at the site. it's about white nationalism. i mark it suspect.
http://home.ddc.net/ygg/
2. Politically Correct Racism (42)
3. Resistance: Nationalism (15)
4. The Jewish Role (32)
9. The Culture Wars (11)
How? You mean if Granny's temp shows too high, you can phone her and tell her to:
put on a tinfoil hat
stop sunbathing in the road, get up off the pavement and go back inside
wake up, take her head out of the oven, finish the cookies, and put her head in the freezer
take a bath in icewater (hope she wakes up with both kidneys ;-)
take a big Blue Squishy enema
locate her will and write you in it?
This anime grapples somewhat with the issue of the tension between the elderly needing complete care and automation being cheaper but impersonal. It made me think about the moral and social dimensions of the issue -- especially as, after all, even an elderly feeble senile person augmented by being hooked up to an internet connected AI nursebot is part of Vinge's singularity and could perhaps outthink and outcompete a normal unaugmented person. See: Roujin Z From that page: Roujin Z Plot Synopsis: "In the very near future in Japan, the number of elderly people is steadily rising, and it is becoming more and more difficult to care for them. This is of concern to the student nurse Haruko. You see, there is a government experiment with the goal of completely automated care of the elderly going on, and it just so happens that the test subject for the project is going to be Haruko's patient. The project, a bed that can do anything from bathe a patient to have a conversation with him, is a miracle of modern automation. Things get a little weird when the old man starts calling for help--using the bed's built in Internet connection. Well, Haruko and friends have no choice but to help the old man escape, but they're having a number of problems with that process. After a couple of failed attempts, the bed (yes, the bed) decides to take matters into it's own hands. You see, the bed starts thinking that it's the old man's dead wife, and doesnt like the way he's being treated. Yes, you read that right. To make matters worse, the bed was also a secret military experiment, and has capabilities to match. So we've got an automated elder care bed that thinks it's an old man's wife running away from the Ministry of Health and the military and wreaking havoc in the process, all the while carrying around an out of it old guy and being chased by some overzealous nursing students who are in turn being monitored by a crew of elderly hackers. Then things start getting really weird..."
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
we'll wake up one day in a gated community to the following scene:
"Who are you?"
"The new number two."
"Who's number one?"
She's fallen and can't get up!
My grandmother suffers from vascular dementia, one of several brain disorders common in the elderly that produces Alzheimers-like sympthoms- confusion, memory loss, etc. Most of the time, her condition can be controlled with medication, but when she gets bad, she can forget where she lives and even how to operate a touch-tone phone. During those periods, she needs to be monitored 24 hours a day for her own safety. Right now, this is done by family members or visiting nurses (at considerable expense) Sooner or later, my grandmother is going to have to move to an assisted living facility with a locked "memory ward," something everyone in the family dreads.
I would hate to see this kind of tracking or monitoring technology imposed on the general population for all the usual Big Brother and civil liberties concerns. However, a system such as the Cloverwood facility in the article uses could be a godsend for my grandmother and the increasing number of elderly citizens with Alzheimers and other dementia disorders. Cameras and pendants are far less invasive (and potentially, far less expensive) than being followed around all day by a nursing aide. Used wisely, this technology could help elderly citizens with mental disorders stay independent and maintain their dignity for longer than is currently feasible.
"Used wisely" is the key phrase here.
That comment fits with his point about retirement homes awaiting the boomers:
Seastead this.
The system can track where residents are anywhere in the campus...
Management speak: The system can track where inmates are anywhere in the cellblock...
the prisoner, "who is number 1?".
:)
number 216, "you are number 6".
so, who still says that t.v. isn't educational?